When Jim Dyke, Jr. dropped 48 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon into the waters of Charleston Harbor, he wasn’t wasting booze—he was testing out a theory that could change the way vintners age wine.

And his grand experiment with what he calls “aquaoir” was inspired by a happy historical accident.

Dyke, who owns Mira Winery in Napa Valley, tells Beverage Daily’s Rachel Arthur that the discovery of still-bubbly champagne in the hold of a historical shipwreck got his wheels turning. Could something in the salt water affect how wine aged, he wondered?

He began a series of experiments that involve submerging cages filled with wine bottles in salt water. The goal: to understand the ways in which factors like light, motion, temperature and pressure affect wine’s character. “We were stunned,” he told Arthur. “[The wine’s taste was] not only different, but it seemed as if the ocean had expedited the aging process while maintaining the core characteristics.”